Forming an Altar Server Program

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Back in the day, I think such a program was a lot easier to form. You had all of the kids in school right on the premises all day, they were available to serve daily mass every day before they were even chosen to serve Sunday mass.

Nowadays, no school in many parishes, parents have to drive the kids to the meetings and have to make a choice between altar service, boy scouts or soccer or little league. For a parent to sit through the meetings they themselves would have to be interested.

Back in the day, it was just the kids that had to be interested, and they got the perk of getting out of class. In today’s world, not only the kids have to be interested, the parents do as well, and the parents have to have the time available to do it.
 
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Kielbasi:
Back in the day, I think such a program was a lot easier to form. You had all of the kids in school right on the premises all day, they were available to serve daily mass every day before they were even chosen to serve Sunday mass.

Nowadays, no school in many parishes, parents have to drive the kids to the meetings and have to make a choice between altar service, boy scouts or soccer or little league. For a parent to sit through the meetings they themselves would have to be interested.

Back in the day, it was just the kids that had to be interested, and they got the perk of getting out of class. In today’s world, not only the kids have to be interested, the parents do as well, and the parents have to have the time available to do it.
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Naw.

There are other forces that are far more powerful in keeping dedicated kids from serving:

*The influx of altar girls has taken a huge toll on the tradition of altar boys. After their introduction ruins a program, they often stop serving themselves, leaving the parish in a tough situation.

*Many parents do not want their kids around priests.
  • Many parents are simply not as devout as their ancestors were. It’s not important to them for their sons to be altar boys.
 
I’m a young female altar server (ignore the name given its a nickname) and happen to run the altar serving group in our parish 😉 . Just a few tips that help me in running my group:
  1. Have regular meetings with both all the altar srevers and the priest present to work out whats wanted.
  2. When training, train older and younger servers separately as then thay can’t wind each other up. Also educate the servers as to the importance and theology behind the mass in a manner they can cope with. This both improves their serving and their attitude to the mass.
  3. Instruct the older servers on how to help the younger ones without bein noticed.
  4. Don’t be too hard on them when they make a mistake, if you correct them gently, they generally respect you and follow the guidance. If you shout they may become deliberately antagonistic.
  5. Get the priest to welcome them, and thank them all regularly - gifts at christmas and easter go down remarkably well and increase loyalty. 👍
Hope all goes well and remember always encourage new servers and their vocations! By the way I prefer an alb and chord - not as much to catch on fire, though I’ve seen it happen. 😃 There are some who object though because apparently some of the lads look too much like their meant to be the priests! :confused:

God Bless,

Tom 🙂
 
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slewi:
Does anyone have any references to the use of the casssock and surplice or cotta? I don’t believe the GIRM mentions it, but it does say:
  1. In the dioceses of the United States of America, acolytes, altar servers, lectors, and other lay ministers may wear the alb or other suitable vesture or other appropriate and dignified clothing.
What is other suitable vesture? Why not the the cassock and surplice? Even for girls?

The argument is that traditionally the cassock was a priestly vestment, but you hardly see it anymore, and the true priestly vestment is the stole.

Granted, boys alone should be servers, but I am just playing devils advocate here. If girls can now serve with diocesan approval, why can’t they wear the cassock and surplice?

Why has it fallen into disuse in NO parishes?

S
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I don’t think the cassock is priestly dress but clerical dress. It would be proper dress for anyone who had received tonsure (which has now been abolished). On the one hand, it makes sense to not use cassocks for females because it is impossible for them to be clerics. On the other hand, altar boys are not clerics, and only get to wear the cassock because they are performing a clerical function - females are performing the same function, so in that sense have the same claim to the cassock as male non-clerics.
 
I’m warning you, Stephen. My paten is at the ready.

No girls in cassocks!!! :tsktsk:
 
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warrior71:
I was an altar boy in the early to mid sixties. While certain things, movements, responses have either changed or been eliminated we had a few basic requirements and were taught some basic things that I think still probably would apply.

We had to volunteer and be at least 10 maybe 11 years old. Fifth grade, I remember that. Any younger there might have been problems in understanding what was going on. Our parents had to give permission that we would be altar boys. We had to be baptized and have taken first Holy Communion. Were were given a tour of the church, told what everything was, why it was there and how it related to the Mass. We were taught that assisting at Mass was as close to heaven as we would get before actually going there. We were taught to respect the Altar, the Sanctuary and the Tabernacle and never think what we were doing was routine or ordinary. We were taught to always remember that a consecrated host is the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ and to show Him the respect He deserved. We received little cards that had all the movements diagrammed on them with real clear instructions on what to do and how and when to do it. We practiced for several weeks before we were allowed to assist at Mass. Father kept a log book of some type showing how often we served, which Masses, whether we were the lead altar boy or not and how we did each time. We met once a week informally and about once a month we would have a full meeting and Father or the other priests would talk to us, explain some things, critique us, and maybe give us a pop quiz on things. Afterwards we’d all go to a movie or play foootball or do something together. We had to go to confession weekly. We had a dress code, but all I can remember is no tennis shoes. We had to have taken a bath before assisting.

I hope this helps out. It was really a lot of fun.
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snif-snif—this post almost brought a tear to my eye. My son had a wonderful 5 week training course to be an altar boy. The training had many of the elements above, much to my delight!!! However, what was missing was THE PRIEST!!! He NEVER came to any of the training sessions. It never even occured to me that he should come. What a difference that would have made to these kids. In my son’s training, there were 10 servers—all boys. It sounds, too, like in your training, the priests tried to get all of the boys together and make them feel like they were part of a special “club”. Really, isn’t it something special to be an altar boy? It’s not a burden. It should be considered an honor. I think if more priests made an effort to come to at least the first meeting of altar boy training, and made sure that the kids knew what an honor it was, the kids would regard it that way.:crying:
 
How about first and foremost, recruiting all boys and calling them what they were originally called and intended to be…Altar Boys.
 
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